The Nearly Nude Nail | Essie Sugar Daddy

Sunday, January 20, 2013

As the weather gets colder, the nail trend tends to follow suit, and everyone is abuzz about their new (or old) favorite winter nail colors, usually a plum or a dark purple. However, never having been blessed with long and elegant nails myself, and definitely not wanting to highlight that fact, I've always stuck to lighter colors. This winter, I haven't gone much darker than a greige (I know, so daring), but this past week my nails have been sporting a more nude, flesh-toned polish. Enter Essie's Sugar Daddy.

Sugar Daddy (a sheer-ish baby pink with peachy undertones) actually came into my life by mistake, but I'm only positive it was meant to be because it remains one of my favorite nail polishes in my collection. I snapped it up on one of my many late night drugstore runs back in college (that's Uni, for those of you across the pond-ers ;) ), thinking it was Essie's famous Ballet Slippers, because as usual, my mind went blank when I entered, and I could not for the life of me remember the name of the polish I originally wanted. I never did get my hands on Ballet Slippers, but long story short, Essie's Sugar Daddy found a happy home in my collection that night, and the rest was history.

In terms of lasting quality, I can usually go a few days sans topcoat before it starts to chip, but keep in mind I'm a very clumsy person, and have a tendency to throw my arms about. It's also a very light color, so it takes me at least two coats to get a solid color payoff, although I usually end up doing about three or four. And although I tend to break this color out in the winter, Sugar Daddy also looks really great on the nails when I've got my summer tan, so I could also see this going over really well on girls with well-tanned and olive skins. This goes better with my winter skin when applied more sheerly, but I applied it quite thickly (four coats, the drying process was rather tedious!) for the sake of this swatch, and I think it looks quite nice!

In terms of versatility, I just bet this would make a great base color for a french manicure due to its color and high shine, but seeing as I've never been one for fancy-dancy nails, I've always worn this polish alone. Hmm, it might be time for me to look into one of those nifty nail pens for at-home frenchies...

To end on a surprising note (or not), Sugar Daddy is actually the only Essie polish in my collection (save your gasps!). I've never really been a huge fan of nail polish, save that one year where I made it my mission to buy at least one bottle every time I went to the drugstore, but I'd love to start building up my collection again. Any Essie polishes I just have to try?